As Angels Hold Their Breath...

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served…or the gods … in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:15.

As I continue to drink in the wonderful writings of Sheila Walsh I am constantly amazed by her revelations.  My Bible and other studies are marked up with bright yellow highlights, asterisks and squiggly lines written all over the pages.  The problem with this book, God Loves Broken People, is that my markings are lost among the pages as everything is marked.  She hits the nail on the head every time building a blueprint of truth for the Christian walk. 

The underlying unapologetic theme is simple…we have all suffered in this world, and we will all suffer again due to its brokenness.  With Walsh, it is a settled attitude removing all uncertainty, freeing up the mental and futile questions of why.  Her why is answered once and for all with one word – sin.  When sin entered the world brokenness rode in on its back.  What we are left with is our response to the certainty of pain and suffering.  God echoed this in 1 Peter 4:12, 19, ‘Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange was happening to you…So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.’ 

Committing to the Creator…choosing whom we will serve...We can serve the gods of resistance, bitterness, continued questioning or we can serve the God who restores, heals and gives life.  It is a choice that our hearts must make in the face of fear and the circumstances of suffering.  ‘The power of suffering to create beauty in your life lies almost entirely with you, in how you choose to react to the difficulties and even catastrophes that invade your life.  In a sense, the angels hold their breath waiting to see how you will respond…and what you will choose.’ God Loves Broken People, p. 106.  Deuteronomy sings a beautiful song in a symphony to be sung by all Christians in their walk of faith.  ‘I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him’ Deut 30:19-20.

Notice that Scripture states that through our choosing of life, our children will feel life.  Our responses to difficult times provide the manner in which our children will emulate.  If we choose life, they will experience life…if we choose the hysteria and chaos of the moment, they will settle into that choice.  Our response to suffering opens its arms and gathers our loved ones pulling them in to our attitudes.  ‘How we choose to respond to life’s challenges, setbacks, and tragedies makes an enormous difference – not only to our own experience of life, but also to the experience of those who travel life with us.’ God Loves Broken People, p 105.

Choosing Life

“When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart…Even if you have been banished to the most distant land…from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back.  The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts…so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live…Now choose life…For the LORD is your life” Deut. 30:1-20.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of Scripture with paramount implications and bottomless rewards.   We glean many truths from this beautiful speech between Moses and God’s chosen, and they are still applicable today.  These are ancient truths from our relative God.

-          We will all experience times of peace and times of suffering (blessings & curses)

-          God holds all time and circumstances in His hands (I have set before you)

-          There is no suffering too great for God to heal (banished to the most distant land)

-          God is our LORD and will pick us up and restore us (gather & bring back)

-          God will cut back the weak and unproductive areas of our hearts through suffering (circumcision of our heart)

-          God’s work in our hearts will increase the ability to love and devote ourselves to Him (so that you may love him)

-          Through the emergence of this reciprocal love, we gain life even in horrible seasons (and live)

-          Even with His fierce display of love, we still have the choice to respond (Now, choose)

-          Whenever we choose to respond to suffering with complete trust and confidence in the Father, we will experience peace and joy in the face of uncertainty…life in the threat of death.

Scripture encourages the suffering heart that our pain is not in vain.  God steadies pain as the life-giving scalpel that removes the areas of our heart that are hinderances instead of love.  He mends our heart back together with the sutures of love, grace and faithfulness.   Through the process we move from despair to determination, and learn of His fierce love shared by Father and child.  We must surrender to His processes to receive the full benefits of life.

Now choose life!

Settle Down & Build

“This is what the LORD almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile… ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage…Increase in number there; do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’” Jeremiah 29:4-7.

I read a wonderful piece yesterday about a guy who has taken this verse as a challenge in the wake of the presidential election.   He understands that our country is in exile from the tenants of God.   It doesn’t matter which candidate sits in the oval office this morning.  What matters is the mess we have gotten our country in over the last decades.  Charles Stanley preached a few weeks ago that it is not any one leader who led us into our country’s chaos, but a series of administrations that ruled the country with the Bible closed. 

This passage was God’s mouthpiece instructing His people to settle in – it was going to be a long ride.  He encouraged them to invest in their exile by setting up homes, and throwing out seed in their gardens to provide for their families.  The instruction to marry and have children made it obvious that their exile was going to be multi-generational, and they were to increase as a people among their captives.  To decrease would mean to become invisible and be swallowed up in the society for which they were enmeshed.   The LORD knew the only way they could live in peace among their kidnappers would be by asking the LORD for His peace and eventual deliverance.   

Our culture has become one where Christianity is on the decrease and the rising tides of the flesh mandate the day.  We have become a nation carried off by the individual desires of its residents instead of the determined worship of one God.  As God’s chosen people, we must do what our Father instructed back in Jeremiah’s time… build our spiritual homes while in exile, settling into the life of a divided country for which we find ourselves.  We must plant seeds of hope and faith in God so that the harvest will produce different fruit than the poisonous fruit we see today.  We must marry our faith with God’s laws not bending His word into our own agenda.  The only way we will live among the exiles during this precocious time is through constant prayer and supplication to the only One who can and will deliver us from ourselves.   His instructions were clear…settle down!  No moaning, no groaning, no plotting, no planning… build, plant, multiply, invest, increase, prosper, turn our face back to the LORD. 

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declared the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you, plans to give you hope and a future…You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you…and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you…where I have banished you…and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.’   Jeremiah 29:13-14.

Sometimes we are forced into exile because we no longer stand out as His children.  We have become a nation of the invisible where it is tough to determine who is living out God’s agenda and who is living out their own.  To be unified we must all look towards the same Leader and work towards the same message – the message of God’s word.  That Leader rules from within each of us and not from Washington, giving us ability and opportunity to allow His reign through our voice and actions.  We are instructed to pray for our leaders and invest in the country for which we have been exiled.  So settle in, build lasting homes, plant seeds, invest and by all means let us increase as Christians instead of decreasing as a divided body of the people of God.

From Infancy to Adult

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.  Until I come, devote yourself…Do not neglect your gift, which was given you…Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.  Watch your life and doctrine closely.  Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Tim 4:12-16.

This passage speaks loving and encouraging words from Paul as he attempted to build up his ‘son in the faith.’  Paul knew that Timothy’s youth was being called into question by the older believers.  God had entrusted Timothy with an amazing gift of preaching and teaching the message.  Many times he was not taken seriously because of his age and lack of experience in life.  My heart goes out to this youthful pastor whose desire was to grow people into the faith.

By the time I was 21, I was already a wife and mother.  Older friends of my parents were constantly describing me as a child with a child, creating deep insecurities regarding motherhood in my mind and heart.  These sweet people never intended to harm me with their comments, but my awareness of inexperience and age left me feeling inadequate as a mother.  I can remember many talks with my mother, asking her if she thought I was a good mother.  She was always encouraging and convincing as she consistently lifted me up.   (Now she lifts me up as an old mother!)  If it were not for the on-going support she gave me, I could have been distracted and ineffective in caring for God’s gift to me.

When we decide to pursue God more deeply, He reveals our spiritual gifts to accomplish His purpose for each of our lives.  We all begin as baby Christians in our walk of faith nursing on the words of God.   As our devotion to Christ increases, our spiritual impact emerges as our doctrines are in our feet instead of simply on our tongues.  Our confidence in God begins to grow and our story of faith is in full view regardless of how long we have pursued Him. 

Those of you who have recently discovered your God-given gift, do not measure your effectiveness against others – each gift has been handpicked for you from God.   He is your confidence and your hope.  Those who see opportunities to lift up others in their walk should take the time to encourage and build up the faith of others. 

We will always find ourselves surrounded by those whose faith is more mature and those whose faith is in its infancy.  The goal is to measure ourselves against God, not man.  ‘For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.’ 2 Tim 1:6-7.

Building Gallows

“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said ‘A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman’s house.  He had made it for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.’” Esther 7:9. 

Don’t you know that Harbona couldn’t spit those words out quickly enough?  His response reminds me of when my children were little and one couldn’t rush quickly enough to show me what the other had done wrong.  On some occasions I would be pulled by the hand to be shown the disobedience….ahhhhh…..the joy of one child seeing the other child get what they deserve.  My children were not mean-hearted…just justice-driven.

We are no different as Christian adults as we run to God, grabbing His hand and dragging Him to the feet of someone who deserves to be punished.  We point out situations that God is already very aware of.  We give God ideas for the punishment we feel they should experience.  We remind God that our motivation is based on fairness and justice, not a heart screaming out from the flesh.   

In watching someone set up the gallows for one of my children, I was tempted to point out the noose to God.   In prayer, I reminded God that this person needed to be punished and that my daughter was the intended neck for the gallows.  What words I wasted in remembering that God will permit providence to play out until man hangs on his own gallows.  John Calvin said, ‘Man falls as God’s providence ordains, but he falls by his own fault.’ I love that we don’t have to build gallows and tell God how to do His job.  He ordains which circumstances we will experience which align with His ultimate purpose for each of our lives. 

The next time we wish to see someone hang for their actions, we must remember that someOne hung for our actions. 

Banging On Doors

“…how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?  Then he can rob his house.” Matthew 12:26

Growing up in the country I always felt a sense of safety and security.  We lived in the middle of five acres with few houses in our community.  When I married Bruce, I moved into his home which was in the middle of six acres with very few neighbors.  Moving into my new life with him felt like going home.  I felt a continued sense of safety and security and most times I never locked our front door.  I would leave and return many times throughout the day and never think twice about walking into an unlocked home.  When Bruce began traveling with work the days turned to nights and still the doors remained unlocked until bedtime.  Thankfully and by the grace of God, I never experienced any break-ins or robberies.  Now that I have gotten older and more mature, I realize how I had left myself vulnerable for unnecessary peril and dangerous situations.

In our spiritual lives the entrance to our heart is no different.  If we leave the doors unchecked we become vulnerable to Satan’s invasion.  If we allow the windows of fear to remain open, Satan will climb in and rob us of our peace.  He will ransack our faith, opening memories of past failures and fears taking us hostage in our heart.  If we do not check the locks on every emotion daily we run the risk of being bound up and tied to them forever.  We must be a watchman over our heart and look for what God says in every situation.

“This is what the Lord says to me:  ‘Go, post a lookout...’ ‘Day after day, my Lord, I stand on the watchtower’” Isaiah 21:6, 8.

1 Peter 5:8 warns us that we are to be alert to Satan’s attacks through the self-controlled actions of our daily walk.  As we meditate on God’s word, the door slams shut.  As we enter into intimate fellowship with God, the bolt slides over.  As we surrender our emotions and disappointments to the Father, the windows of our heart become fortified with bars.  We will see Satan running feverishly around the house, trying windows and banging on doors…sorry, no invitation…no entry.   The next time Satan thinks of attacking our home he will have to work for it – no more waltzing through the front door with no effort. 

  

 

What Dreams Are Made Of

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11.

I read the most beautiful folk tale this morning that demonstrates Jeremiah 29:11.  It is such a poignant story about the promises of God and the wisdom of His plans for each of our lives.  I hope you are blessed by this old folk tale.

‘Once there were three little trees, with big dreams.  The first tree dreamed of being carved into a beautiful and ornate treasure box that would hold the greatest treasure the world had ever seen.  The second tree dreamed of being fashioned into a great ship that would sail the Seven Seas.  The third tree didn’t want to leave its home on the mountaintop.  “I want to grow so tall that when people see me, they’ll raise their eyes to heaven and think of God.”

One day when the young saplings had grown into tall, strong trees, three woodcutters climbed the mountain.  As they cut down the first tree, it could barely contain its excitement – it just knew it would soon fulfill its destiny.  But instead of an elaborate treasure chest, workers made the tree into a plain, ordinary feedbox for farm animals.  The tree felt bitterly disappointed.  The second tree got made into a ship, but not the kind to crest the waves of mighty oceans.  It became just a simple fishing vessel, floating in a lake – not the stuff dreams are made of.  The third tree, to its horror and dismay, also got chopped down, cut into wooden beams, and then left to gather dust in a lumberyard.  ‘All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountaintop and point to God,’ it moaned.

Time passed and the trees forgot their dreams, until one night when a young woman placed her baby in the animal feedbox – and the first tree knew that indeed it carried the greatest treasure on earth.  Another night, a tired man and his friends crowded onto the little fishing boat.  They got halfway across the lake when a terrible storm blew in, threatening to tear the boat to pieces.  The tired man stood up and said, “Peace, be still.”  The second tree knew then that it was carrying the King of heaven and earth.  One Friday morning the third tree felt itself yanked from the woodpile and dragged through city streets, where crowds shouted insults.  The tree felt cruel and ugly when it realized it had become an instrument of torture.  Soldiers nailed a man’s hand and feet to its beams.  But on Sunday morning, when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy, the tree stood tall, knowing that from now on, it would forever point people to God.’

As we spiritually mature and grow we cannot be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ until we allow ourselves to be cut down and refashioned into the instruments of God.  If we surrender our own hopes and dreams and trust in God’s plans for our lives we become part of God’s story instead of writing our own.  

Much like our little trees, we carry the treasure of God within our hearts, we carry the power of God within our lives and our faith points to God because of Christ.